3D Resin Printer


twforeman

Certified Great Northern Nut
I picked up a Phrozen Sonic Mini 4k for Christmas and finally managed to get some resin today to start experimenting with it. Silly me, I thought that it would come with a bottle of resin. Oh well, there's a MicroCenter in town and they have 3D printing supplies.

I also picked up a wash and cure station - resin prints need to have the extra resin rinsed off of them with either water or isopropyl alcohol, depending on the type of resin, and they need to be cured with UV light. Sunlight will work, but it's winter and not very sunny here.



I've printed a couple of test cubes to calibrate for the resin and holy cow the detail is amazing. It blows the filament 3D printers out of the water. It's hard to see the detail, but this is the first thing I printed - it's about 3/8" square.



Those bars in the X are about .020" thick and there is thinner detail elsewhere on the part.

This is going to be a great tool. I've just fired up a test print of the brick pillar and the iron column for the depot I'm making and I expect them to be amazing when done.

One of the neat things about the resin printers is that the time it takes is entirely based on the height of the parts you print. Which means you can fill the build plate with as many parts as you like, it will only take as long to print as the tallest one. So printing one brick pillar takes the same amount of time as printing 15 of them.
 
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What did that set you back? I've been debating, but may wait another year...
I bought a slightly more expensive unit (the Sonic Mini 4k) because it's 2-3 times faster than most of the others and it has higher resolution. It was $400.

You can pick up a different brand for under $200 but it won't print as fast. Which isn't really a big deal for most people.
 
It's difficult to get a good photo of the white resin, but here are the two columns I printed.



They are about 2" tall and the bricks are .030" x .100" with .006" mortar lines. They are nice and crisp.
 
I've been eyeing one of those for quite awhile, but I'm not sure I have enough projects to justify.
Yeah, same. But then I decided to start making and selling laser kits (like I don't have enough to do already) and now I can make custom parts too.

I'll be printing all the windows and doors for the latest kit I'm building.
 
Yeah, same. But then I decided to start making and selling laser kits (like I don't have enough to do already) and now I can make custom parts too.

I'll be printing all the windows and doors for the latest kit I'm building.
That will certainly open up options for you rather than having to rely on another producer like Tichy. Looking forward to what's coming!
 
There are a handful of sites that host STL files for printing - Thingiverse.com is a popular one - but most of what I'll be printing I will be creating myself.

I use Fusion 360 for 3D modeling, but I'm also going to look into Blender and Meshmixer.
 
Does it use the same file types as any other 3D printer?

I have access to HO scale buildings and such in the public domain.

And very nice machine.
 



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